5 


— Greeutibe and Reoislative Departments 


GOVERNMENT OF MASSACHUSETTS, 


AT THE 


ANNUAL ELECTION, 


¥ a 


WEDNESDAY, JAN. 1, 1868. 


By JAMES FREEMAN CLARKE. 


BOSTON: 
WRIGHT & POTTER, STATE PRINTERS, 


No. 4 SPRING LANE. 


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THE DUTIES OF MASSACHUSETTS. 


DELIVERED BEFORE THE 


Geeeutioe and egislatibe DPepartments 


OF THE 


GOVERNMENT OF MASSACHUSETTS, 


AT THE 


ANNUAL ELECTION, 


WEDNESDAY, JAN. 1, 1868. 


By JAMES FREEMAN CLARKE. 


BOSTON: 
WRIGHT & POTTER, STATE PRINTERS, 


No. 4 Sprina LANE. 


1868. 


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4 
ears 


Commontuerlt{h of Massachusetts. 


House or REPRESENTATIVES, January 9, 1868. 


ORDERED, That a Committee be appointed to present the thanks of the House 
the Rev- JAMES FREEMAN CLARKE, for his able and eloquent Discourse before the 
Executive and Legislative branches of the Government, on the Ist inst., and to request 


a copy of the same for the press. 


And Messrs. WALKER, of Springfield, 
GAYLORD, of Boston, 
ABBOTT, of Middleborough, 
WORCESTER, of Clinton, and 
KING, of Boston, 
Are appointed. 
W. S. ROBINSON, 
. Clerk. 


HousE oF REPRESENTATIVES, January 29, 1868. 


The Committee appointed by Order of the House of January 9th, inst., to present 
the thanks of the House to the Reverend James Freeman Clarke, for his able and 
eloquent Discourse delivered before the Executive and Legislative branches of the 
Government on the Ist inst., and to request a copy of the same for publication, report 
that they have attended to that duty and herewith present a copy of Mr. Clarke’s 


Discourse and recommend that it be printed. 


Per order, 
GEORGE WALKER, 


Chairman. 


Houser or REPRESENTATIVES, January 30, 1868. 


Accepted. 
W. S. ROBINSON, Clerk. 


‘ 


Commonwenlth of Massachusetts. 


House or REPRESENTATIVES, February 7, 1868. 


ORDERED, That five thousand copies of the Election Discourse be printed, in 
‘ 


addition to the number already printed. | | 
W. S. ROBINSON, Clerk. 


" 


an? 


[Nork.—A few pages, omitted in the delivery, are 


v> hoes can | H | \ 
2 ee a fee t's 4 eee 3 cet 


SHRMON. 


EcouestAstxs, ix. 14, 15, 16 and 18. 


THERE WAS A LITTLE CITY, AND FEW MEN WITHIN IT; AND THERE CAME A 
GREAT KING AGAINST IT, AND BESIEGED IT, AND. BUILT GREAT BULWARKS 
AGAINST IT. NOW THERE WAS FOUND IN IT A POOR WISE MAN, AND HE BY 
HIS WISDOM DELIVERED THE CITY. * * * * THEN SAID I, WISDOM IS 
BETTER THAN STRENGTH; * * * * WISDOM IS BETTER THAN WEAPONS OF 
WAR. 

I have taken this passage for my text to-day, it 
being my intention to speak to you of the Duties 
of Massachusetts,—since Massachusetts somewhat 
resembles the little city here spoken of, not being 
as large as some other States, or as populous as 
some other communities,—yet having in it perhaps 
a few wise men and wise women. I will also add 
a passage from the Apostle Paul’s Epistle to the 


Philippians, chapter iii., verses 12 and 13. 


“¢ Not as though we had already attained, or were already 
perfect ; but forgetting those things which are behind, and 
reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press 


toward the mark.”’ 


Massachusetts is a small State, the smallest but 


three in the Union. It is less populous than six 


8 DUTIES OF MASSACHUSETTS. 


States, being already behind Indiana and Illinois in 
population, and probably at the next census it will 
be lower still. It is destined to be surpassed in this 
respect by Michigan, Missouri, Wisconsin, Lowa, 
Minnesota, and, before long, by the States of the 
Pacific ‘slope. In absolute increase of population 
to the square mile, it did mdeed stand first at the 
last census, having advanced 30.33 per cent. from 
1850 to 1860. But this is owing partly to the fact 
that we have so small a territory to increase upon. 
The divisor being small, of course the quotient is 
larger. Massachusetts has only 7,800 square miles 
of area, while Texas, at the other end of the scale, 
has 237,000, and California 188,000. Yet while 
Texas has only two and one-half inhabitants to the 
mile, and California only two, Massachusetts, at the 
head of the list, supports on every mile of territory 
one hundred and fifty-seven persons. But she is 
not crowded; she has vast tracts of uninhabited 
surface which are yet to become musical with the 
hum of spindles, the lowing of cattle, and the 
murmur of the school-house. There are in Mas- 
sachusetts to-day more than a million of acres of 
unimproved lands. She is rich, and growing 
richer. In amount of property, real and personal, 
she stood, in 1860, the fifth State of the Union, 


DUTIES OF MASSACHUSETTS. 9 


being only behind New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio 
and Illinois; and in amount of personal property 
she was next to New York, and above the other 
three. In printing of all sorts, Massachusetts 
stands third. In the manufacture of cotton goods, 
woollen goods, boots and shoes, and in fisheries, she 
stands far before all the other thirty-seven States. 
Her banking capital is larger than that of any 
other, except New York. She issues more copies 
annually of periodical works than any, except New 
York and Pennsylvania. 

But the power, and, consequently, the duty of a 
State, are not to be measured by its area, its wealth, 
or its population. Ideas make a State; and as long 
as States have ideas, so long they live and are an 
influence in the world. Greece is a small spot on 
the map of EHurope,—hardly visible on the map of 
the globe. Yet how has Greece led the world, in 
liberty, knowledge, art, science, eloquence, poetry! 
The broken fragments of her statues, dug from 
out her ruins, are still the delight and despair of 
sculptors. Her worn and crumbling temples chal- 
lenge all the architects of the world to equal their 
exquisite proportions. Demosthenes still stands at 
the head of human eloquence; Plato and Aristotle 


are unrivalled in philosophy; Homer and Aiscyhlus 
2 


10 DUTIES OF MASSACHUSETTS. 


in poetry; Herodotus and Thucydides in history. 
In the great battles for freedom and human prog- 
ress, Marathon and Thermopyle remain unsur- 
passed. ‘The words of our Saviour and his apostles 
come down to us in the language of Greece. And 
when, after the long night of the middle ages, the 
corpse of intellectual Europe revived in Italy, it 
was by being touched by the dead fragments of 
the Greek literature, as the man whom the Moabites 
were burying revived and stood on his feet, as soon 
as he touched the bones of the dead Hlisha. 


“When man would do a deed of worth, 
He points to Greece, and turns to tread 
So. sanctioned, on the tyrant’s head. 

He looks to her, and rushes on, 


Where life is lost, or freedom won.” 


And so too, in modern times, the small State of 
Saxe-Weimer, one of the least among the thou-: 
sands of Gerritiny, has become its intellectual 
leader by the constellation of genius, drawn 
together by the wisdom of its Grand Duke. 
Goethe, and Schiller, and Herder and Humboldt 
have made it memorable forever. Goethe, in one 
of his exquisite poems, says of his State and its 
Wnke 


DUTIES OF MASSACHUSETTS. | 11 


“Powerful or rich, owr Prince we cannot call— 
Among the German States, our State is small — 
But, working for the best, did each one choose 
Without, within, all faculties to use; 

Then, from this point of earth, as from a star, 
The purest ray of light would stream afar, 
And Germans join with Germans, “one and all, 


Thankful and proud, as at a festival.” 


The inhabitants of a State inherit ideas from 
their ancestors — when their ancestors had ideas, 
which is not always the case. Our ancestors had 
ideas. ‘They believed in God, in man, in freedom, 
in knowledge and society. Combining these ideas, 
they believed in a Christian Commonwealth, and 
set themselves to found it. They believed in God 
—therefore the whole community was to be a 
church, doing all things to His glory. They 
believed in man —therefore they would have no 
aristocracy, civil or religious, but the whole people 
were to decide all questions in town meeting and 
church meeting. They believed in knowledge — 
so they made education universal, and established 
Free Schools. They founded democracy on the 
Common School — for where the whole people are 
intelligent, the whole people will rule, and any 


class-aristocracy becomes impossible. 


12 DUTIES OF MASSACHUSETTS. 


Our ancestors had ideas. They had Christian 
ideas. They also were Protestant Christians, 
believing in freedom — free thought, free speech. 
Moreover, they were Christian gentlemen, in the 
best sense of the word. It is often said that the 
first settlers of the Southern States were gentle-— 
men—but that the Puritans were not. All 
depends on what we mean by this word, Gentle- 
man. If it signifies outward polish, that is one 
thing —if inward refinement, it is another. Our 
ancestors were not polished, but they were refined. 
They were gentlemen, not on the surface, but 
through and through. We often find a man pol- 
ished outwardly, who is inwardly hard, cold and 
selfish. Externally he is gilded with fine gold — 
but, as the old play says — “touch him inwardly, 
he smells of copper.” Our ancestors were not 
polished or gilded; but they were refined, three 
times over. First, they were refined by religion, 
for a Christian experience by itself produces a 
degree of refinement, and every real Christian is, 
to some extent, a gentleman. Then they were 
refined by their stern lives, by enduring, hard 
trial, by doing hard work, by renouncing ease and 
home, and planting themselves on the borders of a 


wilderness. ‘’o do so much and bear so much 


DUTIES OF MASSACHUSETTS. 13 


refines a man’s nature. It brings him close to 
great realities — takes away vanity, and silly ego- 
tism and self-conceit — all of which are ungentle- 
manly qualities. 

Planted by such men as these, it became inevi- 
table that Massachusetts should become prosperous 
and strong. Industry, economy and virtue inherit 
the earth, and these qualities came to our ancestors, 
not from their bitter climate and reluctant soil, (for 
the New England climate and soil did not make 
the Indians industrious,) but from their Christian 
ideas. It became the duty of this small State to 
lead the nation. She led the way in settling the 
country. She led in establishing free schools and 
free churches. She led the way, in rousing the 
land to resist the tyranny of the British Parliament. 
Her statesmen and soldiers led in the Revolution. 
That war being over, and the States independent, 
she led in commerce, in manufactures, in litera- 
ture, in science, in art, in invention. She has led 
in her charities. She has led in her reforms — the 
Temperance Reform, the movements in behalf of 
the blind and insane, for sailors on the sea, for 
neglected children. Her Normal Schools, her 
Board of Charities, her school ships, all were in 


advance of similar movements elsewhere. She was 


14 DUTIES OF MASSACHUSETTS. 


the fanatical mother of Abolitionists, of Non- 
Resistants, of the Woman’s Rights movement. Tn 
her great brain and large human heart all good 
enterprises grow and ripen. She sent her emi- 
grants to Kansas, and saved that State for freedom. 
She struck the first blow at Lexington in the war 
for Independence, and the echoes of those guns 
went round the world. She sent her sons to die, 
first of all,in the bloody streets of Baltimore, m 
the war for human rights and universal freedom, 
and mankind shall always remember gratefully 
these protomartyrs in the greatest struggle ever 
waged on earth. 

These are the things which are behind. Behind 
us is a barren wilderness changed to a wealthy 
State. Behind is the first system of universal 
education ever carried out by a community. 

This is the history of Massachusetts in the 
Past. If the State has grown from a forest filled 
with savages into wealth, knowledge, comfort, 
power, it is no merit of ours. If Massachusetts 
to-day exports its ice and imports its paupers— 
if it gives to Europe the example of Law without 
a visible Police; of good Government without a 
standing army; of churches without an establish- 


ment; of schools for every child; and lastly, of 


DUTIES OF MASSACHUSETTS. 15 


such wise provision by the State for its lunatics, 
its idiots, its blind, its poor, its deaf and dumb, 
its neglected children, its vicious, its criminals— 
this is due, almost wholly, to our ancestors, who 
founded the Commonwealth on such a basis of 
great ideas, and of the good Providence which 
has watched and blest its growth to this hour. 
“Not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but unto thy 
name be the glory, for thy mercy and for thy 
truth’s sake.” 

In saying all this, we are not boasting, as though 
our little State were better or wiser than the 
others. They, also, are descended from the same 
noble stock; they, also, inherit the same generous 
ideas. Illinois and Wisconsin are filled with the 
children of the Pilgrims, and are a younger New 
England—more enterprising, more hopeful, more 
energetic than we. Since the war has abolished 
slavery, all the States will become more alike in 
essentials, though each will differ from the rest, 
every one having its own special work and its 
peculiar character, as becomes the different mem- 


bers of one family. 


“ Facies non omnibus tna; 


Nec diversa tamen, qualis decet esse sororum.” 


16 DUTIES OF MASSACHUSETTS. 


And now, forgetting the things behind, let us 
reach out to those which are before. Before us, in 
the future, is the great work which our Common- 
wealth has still to do. Her power is not exhausted; 
itis at its height. Her duty, therefore, is greater 
than ever. In the future, as in the past, she 
is to lead the way in applying Christian ideas to 
human affairs, in initiating needed reforms, in 
making to-morrow better than to-day. Yet these 
reforms ought to be in the spirit of her founders, 
in accordance with her traditions, in order to make 
the State more fully than it is now, a Christian 
Commonwealth. We ask nothing but that she 
should go forward in the direction in which she 
has been moving from the first—to a more full, 
complete, perfect application of Christian ideas 
to practical life. 

I am well aware, gentlemen of the General 
Court, that many think Christianity has nothing 
to do with legislation. Religion, they say, is very 
well everywhere except in politics or business. 
Nor do J believe that men can be legislated into 
Christianity. I believe moral means must always 
precede all legislation. Solon, being asked if he 
had given the best laws to the Athenians, said, 


“No! but as good as they were able to bear.” 


DUTIES OF MASSACHUSETTS. 17 


Moses, we are told, in some of his enactments, 
fell short of the Christian standard, and allowed 
for the hardness of their hearts what was not 
right, but what he could not help. No one not a 
fanatic would expect to drive a community by 
force into religion or virtue. But laws for moral 
ends, though they are not armies to overrun and 
conquer a country, may do the work of forts—to 
hold it after it has been conquered. When public 
opinion has once been brought right on any sub- 
ject, a judicious law may hold it right. Argument, 
addressed to the reason and conscience, drives the 
nail in, then the law comes and clinches it. In 
this sense, then, let us consider some of the 
Reforms which lie before us in the immediate 
future, for which the public mind is more or less 
prepared, and which may, therefore, soon become 
proper subjects for constitutional amendments or 
legislative enactments. 

First, then, Massachusetts is the State where 
the whole subject of prison discipline and criminal 
legislation may be thoroughly revised, and carried 
to perfection. Already, we have taken important 
steps in the right treatment of the dangerous 
classes,—of those who are either already criminals, 


or rapidly becoming so. But a Christian Common- 
8 


18 DUTIES OF MASSACHUSETTS. 


wealth must. go further. As the chief object of 
Christ was to seek and save the lost,—as He cared 
more for the one lost sheep, than the ninety and 
nine who had not gone astray,—so a Christian 
State should devote especial care to its lost sheep. 
The tendency of legislation in this State is to 
change penal legislation into that which is preven- 
tive and reformatory. We have learned that it is 
not the business of the State to punish crime,— 
since it is wholly unable to do so. No one but 
God can punish,—for no one but God can tell the 
degree of guilt which goes into any wrong action. 
“ Vengeance 1s mine, Iwill repay, saith the Lord.” 
The attempts of the law, and the courts, to dis- 
criminate degrees of guilt by degrees of punish- 
ment, lead to great difficulties and evils. The 
basis of all criminal legislation should be the duty 
of every State to protect the community. A man 
steals a pocket-book, and we send him to the house 
of correction, or to jail, for three months, and 
then let him go out worse than before, to commit 
another crime, and go to jail for six months. 
Suppose, instead, the law should say,—‘ Such an 
act shows that you are not fit to enjoy freedom. 
The State must take you, and restrain you until 


you prove yourself a safe man to go abroad.” 


DUTIES OF MASSACHUSETTS. 19 


Instead of fixing an absolute period, sentence him 
conditionally. Have a series of houses of reforma- 
tion, graded, not according to guilt, but according 
to the moral condition. Treat the criminal as a 
sick man, who is to stay in the hospital till he is 
cured. ‘Say to him,—‘ When you are well, sir, 
you can go out, but not sooner. As you improve, 
we will give less severe discipline. We will grad- 
ually take away restraint, and give you more 
freedom, more of privileges, as you are able to 
bear them. When you go out, you will take our 
Bill of Health, certifymg to your perfect recovery. 
We shall be able to assure the community that you 
ean be trusted,—because we shall have deen trust- 
ing you during the latter part of your stay.” Thus 
you bring the greatest of all motives, Hope, to bear 
on the criminal. You take away the great weight 
which keeps him down, the sense of his hopeless 
degradation. So far as this principle has been 
applied in our State Prison, it has accomplished 
wonders. You now promise the prisoners that 
good behavior shall take off five days every month 
from the term of their stay. ven this little pros- 
pect has made different men of them. Before, 


they had nothing to gain by good behavior, and 


. 


20 DUTIES OF MASSACHUSETTS. 


little to lose by bad. Your prison this year, for the 
first time, pays its own expenses. 

Some may say,—these men are too bad to be 
improved,—you can do nothing with them. Not 
so; they are not so much worse than people out- 
side the prison. Most of them are undisciplined, 
reckless, passionate, with little power of self-con- 
trol,—that is their difficulty. But consider, — 
you have complete control over them there. No 
parents, no teachers have such entire influence as 
you have. The moment a man goes into one of 
your prisons, you can decide just what influences 
he shall be under, and what not. You can shut out* 
what you will, and let in what you will. Now the 
old plan of a prison was to shut out all good influ- 
ences, and to let in all bad ones. Bad men, and 
weak men, and boys, hardened sinners and young 
offenders, were all put together, with full freedom 
to corrupt each other. That was the old plan,— 
and it made every prison a hell on earth. The 
common improved plan is better. J¢ is to shut out 
both classes of influence, good and bad. The crim- 
nals are left, each in his own cell, alone. But 
how little help is given him, to enable him to do 
better. He has himself for society,—but that is 


usually pretty poor society. There is a better plan 


DUTIES OF MASSACHUSETTS. mal 


still. It is to shut out the bad influences, and to let 
an the good ones. Shut out temptation, idleness, 
bad companions, liquor, gambling, profanity, anger, 
strife, licentiousness,—but let in kindness, brotherly 
love, hope of improvement, opportunity of ele- 
vating his condition, good books, lectures, occa- 
sional recreation. If you wish to improve his 
heart, give him something for his heart to work 
upon. For, says Martin Luther,—with his usual 
admirable sagacity,—* The heart of a human being 
is like the two stones of a mill. Put in corn, and 
the stone, running round and round, grinds it into 
good flour; but put in nothing, and the stone, still 
running round, wears zéself away.” You can per- 
haps keep aman from growing worse by shutting 
out bad influences; but if you wish to make him 
better, you must ‘give him something to love. “A 
person, passing through a prison, heard a convict 
using profane language: ‘ Why do you not have 
better thoughts?’ said he. ‘Better thoughts!’ 
was the forlorn response, ‘where shall I get 
them?’” Do not be afraid, lest, by these improve- 
ments you make the prison a desirable place to go 
to. Mr. Haynes, the Warden, will tell you that no 
amount of money will hire a man whose term has 


expired, to remain there a single day longer. 


uY, DUTIES OF MASSACHUSETTS. 


Restraint is the one thing we all hate,—freedom 
that which we all love. A prison may be made a 
very good place for a man to be in, but never a 
place he will wesh to go to. 

In saying that it is not the business of the State 
to punish, I do not mtend that severe coercive 
measures, causing suffering, may not be an impor- 
tant part of prison discipline. This is especially 
necessary at the beginning, and should consist in a 
period of solitary confinement, with few privileges. 
The best writers insist on this, and the famous 
Irish system commences with eight months’ con- 
finement in a cellular prison, where the convict, 
completely separated from all companions, works 
in his own cell. But this ought to be considered 
as done for the purpose of laying a sufficient foun- 
dation for a genuine reform. I oppose the idea of 
punishment, as one that ought not to be in the 
minds of legislators or of prison officers. They 
should feel that the punishment of a man is too 
difficult and solemn a matter for human powers. 
We are to restrain, and confine and prevent the 
unhappy man from doing harm to others or to him- 
self. Let him see and feel that we are taking care 
of him, not punishing him,—that we are watching 


him for his good, not in anger, not in judgment, 


DUTIES OF MASSACHUSETTS. 93 


but to save him from his own wild and deprayed 
will. 

The moment the State rids itself of the notion 
that it is its duty to punish offenders, and per- 
celves that its office is to protect society by 
restraining and reforming them, we shall witness a 
vast improvement. Criminals now form a class by 
themselves, associated for the purpose of preying 
on society. They have their own public opinion, 
their own education, by which they acquire more 
skill in inflicting injury on the community. They 
regard themselves as outlaws, and are so regarded. 
What State prison convict, who has served his 
time, can get a place and opportunity to support 
himself by honest labor? Formerly none,—now 
some. Boys who leave the school ships of Massa- 
chusetts, are sought for by merchants as sailors,— 
for they have been kept in those ships, not as a 
punishment, but to be educated. Sent there for 
crime, they are retained for education. They enter 
the ship, just beginning a career of evil, members 
of the dangerous class; they leave it well-disposed 
citizens. Let all our prisons become schools like 
these, and we should have to import all our crimi- 
nals from abroad,—we could not manufacture them 


at home. 


Q4 DUTIES OF MASSACHUSETTS. ~ 


I know that many good men will dissent from 
this position, that the State ought not to punish. 
They believe themselves directed to another belief 
by those passages of Scripture which tell us that 
the magistrate “does not bear the sword in vain,” 
and that he is “a revenger to execute wrath upon 
him that doeth evil.” No doubt he is. No doubt 
the criminal suffers punishment, when he is sent to 
prison. Man is God’s instrument, but it is God 
who punishes through man. While man is doing 
his part to protect society, he is obliged to inflict 
that restraint, which is also punishment. But it 
should not be the object of man to punish. Pun- 
ishment will come, incidentally, while he is doing 
his work,—but it is no part of his work to punish. 

The effect of substituting the principle of kind-— 
ness and encouragement for that of severity, has, 
wherever it has been tried, been to diminish 
crime. If, every year, you can change a certain 
number of reckless criminals into good citizens, 
you are cutting up crime by its roots. Such has 
been the result of the Irish Prison system, by: 
which for all good behavior and improvement some 
reward is given; until at last nearly all restraint is 
removed. During the last year of stay in these 


prisons, the imprisonment is nominal, and any con- 


DUTIES OF MASSACHUSETTS. 25 


vict who chose might escape,—but none do escape. 
They prefer to remain. Why? Because they 
know that they will go out, at the end of the year, 
with a character which will give them at once the 
means of support. For man is not a wild beast, 
who can only be held with stone and iron. It is 
much easier to hold him by his hopes, and his 
convictions, than by a chain and ball. 

The principle now adopted in our State Prison 
is that while the conviction is for a definite period, 
a certain time may be taken from it by good 
behavior. On the principle proposed, the sentence 
must still be for a definite period, which may be 
indefinitely lengthened or shortened by good or 
bad behavior. Some crimes are prima facie evi- 
dence that a man is a wery dangerous character. 
A man who has: committed arson, or assault with 
attempt to murder, must understand when he 
enters the prison, that he has forfeited, for a long 
period, all claim to liberty. But then he may also 
understand that there are degrees of privilege 
within the walls, more or less of which may be 
secured by improved conduct and character. He 
goes, we will suppose, into the lowest department, 
beginning his prison life with the hardest work, 


and the fewest privileges. But let him be told 


26 DUTIES OF MASSACHUSETTS. 


that good behavior, steadily continued, will pro- 
cure him one alleviation after another,—while bad 
behavior will take away again these privileges. 
Thus, from time to time, he may earn the use of 
books, an occasional hour of leisure, greater free- 
dom to receive his friends, pleasanter kinds of 
occupation, occasional open air exercise, better 
food ; and, above all, a gradual relaxation of 
restraint. 

Just so far as this great motive of Hope has 
been called in, have the state of our prisons and 
prisoners been improved. 

Where it has been reduced to a system, as in the 
Irish prisons, and those on Norfolk Island, under 
Capt. Machonochie, the good result has been very 
apparent. ‘The latter gentleman, a man of extra- 
ordinary insight into this whole subject of prison 
discipline, established a system of marks, given as 
rewards for industry, improvement and good con- 
duct, which marks had a money value, and served 
to purchase food, clothes, and other comforts, and 
the surplus laid up, went toward the prisoner’s 
earlier liberation. The result of this system was 
marvellous. The penal colony on Norfolk Island 
contained the most depraved of the transported 


convicts. Yet at the end of four years, he could 


DUTIES OF MASSACHUSETTS. oT 


say with truth: “I found the island a turbulent, 
brutal hell; I left it a peaceful, well-ordered com- 
munity. ‘The most complete security alike of per- 
son and property prevailed. Officers, women and 
children, traversed the island everywhere without 
fear; and huts, gardens, stock-yards and growing 
crops, many of them, as of fruit, most tempting, 
were scattered in every corner without moles- 
tation.” * 

Messrs. Wines and Dwight, in their able and 
exhaustive Report on the subject of Prison Dis- 
-cipline in the United States and Canada, published 
last year, confirm these views. ‘They speak indeed 
of penalty, but they declare that Reform is the 
great object of the prison, and that Hope should 
be one of its chief means. [Especially they praise 
our Massachusetts State Prison at Charlestown, 
and the wise and kind measures introduced there 
by our faithful Warden, Mr. Haynes. They regard 
it as one of the very best in the country, and 
chiefly because so much use is made of rewards, of 
hope, of kindness, of educational influences. In 
all these things, our Massachusetts is, as it ought 
to be, at the head of all. But much remains to be 
done. We are far behind the regularly system- 


* Wines and Dwight’s Report. Albany, 1867. 


28 DUTIES OF MASSACHUSETTS. 


atized discipline of the Irish system, where every 
convict can advance his condition step by step, 
from the hardest confinement up to a nominal 
restraint, from which he passes into freedom with a 
character which makes his labor sought for, and 
secures him occupation and good will. 

Second. Passing on to another of the things 
which are before us, the period seems to have 
arrived to consider and decide the great question 
of woman’s right to a share in the government of 
the State in which she lives. Movements all over 
the world indicate that this is the next reform 
before us. It is everywhere in the air. Public 
opinion is already far in advance of legislation. 
In England and in Kansas the tendency is toward 
this end. But here, in Massachusetts, where 
woman has been educated by the side of man in 
all our schools — where, in education, we have 
constantly proceeded on the principle of her great 
capacity — where, in all our churches, her influence 
is so important — where, in our public schools, we 
have seven female teachers to one male teacher — 
where women are already engaged in nearly every: 
profession and occupation which men _ practice — 
where women hold so much property, and are not 


excused from taxation because they are women, 


DUTIES OF MASSACHUSETTS. 29 


nor from being punished for crime because they 
are women — here, in Massachusetts, which has 
led the way for so many other reforms, seems to 
be the place to initiate this. Ido not wish Eng- 
land or Kansas to take the lead of us in this move- 
ment. Asa question of right, all the argument is 
on one side. The republican principle assumes 
as an axiom that every one shall take part in 
making the laws, who is to be governed by those 
laws — that there shall be no taxation without 
representation — that the power to vote for rep- 
resentatives is the best political education and the 
only adequate protection. For this reason we very 
properly give the right of voting to every foreigner 
soon after he lands on our shores, and he is hardly 
acclimated before he is a citizen. ‘When woman is 
not represented, she either takes no part in public 
affairs, and then we lose all the benefit of her intel- 
lect, heart and thought — or she takes part in them 
indirectly and by hidden influence, and so exercises 
power without proper responsibility for the use of 


it. God made woman to be the companion and 


helpmate of man in all that he does—and wherever 
he shuts her out of that companionship, he loses 
the help God meant him to have. The moment 


that we remove from the Constitution the word 


30 DUTIES OF MASSACHUSETTS. 


“ male,” and the masculine pronouns corresponding 
therewith, and invite women to take part in public 
affairs, we shall add to the State just so much more 
moral and intellectual power. If the intellect of 
woman differs from that of man, by being more 
quick and subtle, then she will help us to escape 
many of the stupidities of our average legislation. 
If she has a purer moral tone than that of man, 
she will aid in purifying politics from some of its 
baseness and selfishness, and will impart to it a 
higher quality. Is it said, that her nature will 
become masculine by doing the work hitherto per- 
formed by men? But men do not grow effeminate 
by performing the work commonly done by women. 
To cook, to sew, to mend clothes, and to wash 
them, has usually been women’s work.: But the 
classes of men who have to do this woman’s work; 
namely, hunters, soldiers, sailors, and lumbermen — 
are not made very effeminate, in consequence. It 
is said that women do not wish to vote or be voted 
for. Very well, then they will not do it, and so no © 
harm will be done. The proposition is not to com- 
pel women to vote, but to allow them to vote. It 
is said they will be insulted, if they go to the polls 
with all sorts of men. But they walk through 


Washington Street with all sorts of men — they 


DUTIES OF MASSACHUSETTS. 31 


travel, unattended, in street cars and railroad trains 
with all sorts of men—and he understands the 
American people very poorly, who does not see 
that every man at the polls would constitute him- 
self the protector of every woman, and that the 
effect would be to elevate and purify the polls, not 
to degrade the women voting at them. Is it said 
that something of the bloom and charm of the fem- 
inine nature would be brushed away by the coarse 
contact of politics and politicians. But the true 
charm of woman’s nature is just in that which can- 
not be brushed away —it is part of herself, given 
her by God. When woman is degraded, it is not 
by going into low and degraded scenes to do her 
duty there, but it is by being corrupted and made 
vicious. Not contact, but corruption, degrades 
woman. Not her honest work, no matter where 
it takes her — but her idleness, her vanity, and love 
of show often degrades her, when in places where 
outwardly all seems refined, where the surface is all 
fair and polished. The nature of woman, if it be 
made different from that of man by God, as I 
believe it is, will remain different. Letting her 
vote will not make a man of her; except as manly 
strength is an added charm to feminine sweetness, 


just as feminine sweetness gives an added charm 


32 DUTIES OF MASSACHUSETTS. 


to the strength of aman. A man who is modest, 
as well as brave, is more of a man than before — 
a woman who is brave as well as modest is more 
of a woman. Is it said, that if a woman votes, she 
must also be voted for; and then we may have the 
shocking sight of a woman as legislator, judge, or 
Governor of the State. Very possibly — but not 
till we wish it, and when we wish it, we shall no 
longer be shocked by it. For myself, I should 
like immediately to have women chosen as mem- 
bers of the School Committee in every town in the 
State. Jam satisfied that nothing would help our. 
schools more. It is always hard to find good men 
for that office. The best men are too busy — and 
those not busy, are not always the best. But 
in every town, there are at least half-a-dozen 
women, well educated, deeply interested in chil- 
dren and their education, with ample time to 
devote to it, and much more capable of observing, 
than men are, the tone and temper of a teacher or 
a school. I hope this very Legislature will enact 
a law, distinctly authorizing towns, to choose 
women on the School Committee. They have 
been so chosen, I know, already, in some towns — 
but its legality is doubtful, and ought to be settled 


definitely. I should also like to have the manage- 


DUTIES OF MASSACHUSETTS. 3) 


ment of the State and town hospitals, poor-houses, 
and asylums of all sorts confided to the superin- 
tendence of women. During six hundred years, 
and under thirty-two abbesses, the Convent of 
Fontevrault, in France, was wholly governed by 
women. A woman had the title of General of the 
Order; a woman administered the finances; women 
chose confessors, inflicted punishments, and con- 
centrated in their own hands all administrative 
power. No congregation was more prosperous or 
famous than this. And this is only one example 
among hundreds, of the natural faculty possessed 
by women, to manage the numerous details of 
institutions of this character. 

I know, Gentlemen of the Legislature, that this 
proposed change in the basis of suffrage is a great 
one; and, at first sight, shocks many prejudices. 
There are those who look on woman not as the 
companion of man, but as his servant, thinking it 
her duty not to help, but to obey him, and who 
fortify this opmion by the supposed authority of 
the Bible. ‘They will naturally oppose any change 
in her position which gives her equal rights with 
man before the law. But the Bible, rightly under- 
stood, has steadily operated to lift woman to the 


same plane as inan. Paganism, everywhere, makes 
5 a, 


34 DUTIES OF MASSACHUSETTS. 


of woman either a slave, a toy, or a luxury. Only 
under Christian institutions is woman educated, 
and made the equal partner of man, in all his work, 
knowledge, culture and duty. The Apostle Paul 
has usually been supposed to place woman ona 
lower level than man} but it is Paul who uttered 
the memorable eee which declare that: in Christ 
Jesus there is “neither Jew nor Greek, neither 
bond nor free, neither male nor female.” "Why 
should those who claim’ for Christianity as one of 
its highest blessings to the world, that it has ele- 
vated the position of woman in all other ways, 
place a barrier just at this point? They make 
it the glory of the Gospel to have emancipated 
woman and enfranchised her, by a steady process, 
never intermitted during eighteen centuries; but 
the movement, they say, must stop here. Why? 
Because for a woman to vote is something strange? 
But every step in her elevation has, at first, seemed 
equally strange. Among the Jews it was just as 
strange, when woman ceased to be a chattel, or 
when a father could no longer sell his daughter, | 
being a minor, or when the father, or the oldest 
brother, lost the right of giving her in marriage to 
whom they pleased.. When she came to inherit 


her share of her father’s estate, that was very odd. 


DUTIES OF MASSACHUSETTS. B23) 


So, among the Greeks, when Christianity took the 
wife out of her retirement, and from the society of 
slaves,—it was a singular departure from usage. 
Every movement made in this direction has shocked 
some prejudice, and excited some fear; and that 
we fear the consequences of female suffrages is no 
argument that there is any danger therein. 

What would be the probable consequences of 
universal suffrage? Simply this, —that woman’s 
rights would be considered in legislation, and her 
wishes, sentiments, needs, would come by degrees 
to be embodied in our laws. All politicians, all 
legislators, consult the claims and desires of great 
bodies of voters; and so it would be here. ‘The 
womanly element would thus be gradually intro- 
duced into our institutions. Better men would be 
chosen to office; for the feminine instinct is quicker 
than that of man to understand character. If 
woman is more susceptible to moral and religious 
influences, these qualities would elevate the tone 
of our government. The first effect of female 
suffrage would probably be to increase the major- 
ities now existing in every State,—since, at first, 
woman would generally vote as their husbands and 
fathers do now. Wherever Republican majorities 


now exist, they would be increased; where the 


36 DUTIES OF MASSACHUSETTS. 


Democrats have the majority, they. would have a 
larger majority. | But, by degrees, female voting 
would become more independent. When dissat- 
‘isfied with the nominations, women, would stay at 
home; and that would be voting. To lose ten 
thousand female votes by putting up a candidate 
with a bad character, would be a warning which no 
party could afford to neglect. So, probably quite 
gradually, a change would come over politics, 
greatly tostheir advantage. If women had voted 
during the last thirty years, it is likely that slavery 
would have been abolished, and the. great war, 
with all its woes, made unnecessary. In whatever 
town or city women vote, license laws will be so 
arranged, as to prevent much of the ills of mtem- 
perance. 

It is said that coarse and ignorant women would 
vote, but intelligent and refined women would not. 
But women have a good deal of conscience, and 
many would vote as a duty, who would not vote 
from choice. It is probable that having more 
leisure, more activity of intellect, and quicker sym- | 
pathies, good women would take more interest in 
elections than their husbands and fathers do now. 
Instead of talking together when they met, about 


dress, visits and parties, they would often discuss 


DUTIES OF MASSACHUSETTS. 37 


public questions. They would ask and find out 
the bearing of those matters of finance, tariff, 
excise, which are now supposed:to be beyond their 
comprehension. I cannot but believe that we 
should be saved from many, stupid and some 
wicked acts of legislation by the intuitive percep- 
tions of woman being directed to public questions. 

M. Ernest Legouvé, of the French Academy, in 
his excellent work on “The Moral History of 
Women,” after speaking of their exclusion from | 
so many departments of human life, asks, “ Have 
we the right to say to one-half of the human race, 
©You shall take no part in the State or its life?’ 
Does not this disinherit the State itself? Who can 
certify us that society, like the family, does not 
need, in order to reach its aims, the co-operation of 
these two thoughts and two creations of the 
Almighty? Who can say that a large propor- 
tion of the evils which afflict the race, and of 
tlie insoluble problems which disturb our repose, 
do not take their origin from this absence of the 
equilibrium of creation, by our shutting out the 
feminine, genius from taking its equal share in all 
our labor? ” 

It is said that woman is inferior to man, and the 


proof is that she has never discovered America, 


38 DUTIES OF MASSACHUSETTS. 


written an Iliad, rivalled. Rafaelle in painting, 
equalled Mozart in music, invented a steam-engine, 
or composed novels equal to those of Walter Scott. 
Let us grant, in these respects, her possible but 
not demonstrated inferiority. Until we exclude 
from the ballot-box all. the men who have not writ- 
ten a story equal to Ivanhoe, or rivalled Michael 
Angelo in sculpture; this would appear no good.. 
reason for denying suffrage to woman. ‘here 
seems not much logic, either feminine or masculine, 
in saying to one-half the race, “A hundred men 
or so have excelled you in genius — therefore you 
must obey the laws without making them, you 
must pay taxes without voting them, you must be 
punished by rules to which you have never con- 
sented. Because you cannot do what nine hun- 
dred and ninety-nine men out of a thousand cannot 
do, you must join the children, the insane and 
the criminals in their exclusion from all share in 
government.” 

The man who uses this kind of logic is allowed 
to vote; but the woman who exposes its fallacy 
and makes it ridiculous, is judged his inferior, and 
is disfranchised. 

‘Woman As no doubt different from man, but 


difference is not inequality. Inferior in some 


DUTIES OF MASSACHUSETTS. 39 


regards, she is superior in others — made therefore 
for co-operation, companionship, alliance in all 
things. Such difference, without discord, makes 
the sweetest music of mortal life. As long as we. 
refuse to allow this companionship to enter the 
| State, so long discord and not harmony will prevail 
in politics. 

Legouvé, in comparing men and women, says 
that the masculine body is stronger, but less 
expressive; has more energy, but less variety than 
that of woman. He speaks in one voice, she in 
many. He has ten varieties of expression in his 
face, she a hundred. He has ne smile, she a 
thousand. Her voice, which in man’'is_ harsh, | 
abounds in demi-tones, in quarters of tones, which 
represent, like echoes, all the .varieties of her 
thought and heart. To describe. that practical 
judgment which consists in arrangement, order, 
adaptation in the economy of life, is to admit that 
woman excels therein. If she had a suitable edu- 
cation, how much prudence and minute accuracy 
in details. might she not introduce into the admin- 
istration of the State. If man is a better specu- 
lator, she is a better financier — if he understands 
best the acquisition of fortune, she is better able to 


keep it. 


40 DUTIES OF MASSACHUSETTS. 


Man acts by calculation and by interest-—woman 
by instinct and sentiment. He sees the truth, she 
feels it. He reflects, and so forms his judgment — 
she judges by intuition. Feminine penetration, 
especially, excels in judging character. ‘The most 
hidden movements of the heart, the most carefully 
concealed intentions, she sees at once as if they 
were outward facts. She is all-powerful in this 
inborn science, in this electric sensibility. 

Lately, in England, it was found that some of 
the workhouses were horribly mismanaged. The 
commonest wants of the inmates were cruelly 
neglected. ‘The reporter of a London newspaper 
made the discovery of these evils in a visit of a few 
hours, which had escaped the notice of inspeetors, 
guardians, physicians, overseers, during a long 
period. ‘he worst of it, said the London journals, 
was the fact that the system seemed perfect. There 
was a regular inspector to examine the workhouse, 
a board-of overseers to watch the inspector,.a phy- 
sician to see that the sick were duly cared for, and 
a supreme body to overlook the whole. With all 
these duly appointed watchers, no ‘one watched. 
Why? Because they were men, with other busi- 
ness, with feeble sympathies, with no knowledge 


of house-keeping, with no taste for detail. They 


DUTIES OF MASSACHUSETTS. A] 


could not see when a bed was well made, when 
linen was sufficient and in order, when the food 
was good and well cooked. What do bankers, 
merchants, lawyers know of these things? But if 
the inspectors had been-women, and the Board of 
Overseers women, and the physician a woman — 
these abuses would never have come. | 

Third. There is yet another Reform needed in 
this country, which it is high time that Massachu- 
setts should initiate. We have abolished the whip- 
ping-post for criminals, which once stood in all our 
towns; we no longer whip the convicts in our 
prison; sailors are no longer whipped on our men- 
of-war, nor soldiers in our armies; we have stopped 
the wholesale whipping of men and women at the 
South, by abolishing slavery. But we still allow 
our little children to be whipped in school at the 
discretion of any teacher who may be placed over 
them. Is it that children are so much harder to 
manage than sailors and convicts? What a system 
of terror, force, arbitrary will, exists in thousands 


of our schools to-day, by our allowing this brutal 


system of torture to remain,—after it has been 
swept away everywhere else. “Schools cannot be 
governed without the rod;” that is the only argu- 


ment. “The negro will not work unless compelled 
A 


» 4 DUTIES OF MASSACHUSETTS. 


to by the rod;” that was the ereat argument of the 
slave-holder. Whipping children is defended by 
the majority of teachers on this ground. Good 
teachers as well as bad argue in defence of whip- 
ping. Just so, good slave-holders as well as bad, 
argued in defence of slavery. T never’ whip a 
child,” sayg the good teacher; “ / can govern with- - 
out the.rod; but there are many who cannot.” It 
is the bad teacher, then, who must use the rod; 
that is, we allow the rod that it may be used on our 
children by ignorant, Incompetent teachers, who 
are sure to use it badly. “It may, in most cases, 
be dispensed with,” says another; “but sometimes 
there is a boy who is better for being whipped,— 
who can feel no other motive,—so we must retain 
the whip for his sake.” I grant that there may be 
such boys,—boys who may really be the better for 
a good whipping. And so I think there are men 
who would be better for a good whipping. When 
a brutal fellow beats his wife half to death, I have 
no doubt that the best thing for him would be 
thirty-nine lashes, well laid on. . But shall we 
restore the horror of a whipping-post in our towns, 
for the sake of a few such men? Shall we fill the 
air of our villages with the sound of stripes, and 


the yells of the victim? Shall we brutalize our 


DUTIES OF MASSACHUSETTS. 43 


people by such spectacles, for the sake of one or 
two who may need it? Neyer! Yet we brutalize 
the teachers who inflict these punishments, and the 
children who witness their infliction, for the sake 
of the one boy, here and there, who may perhaps 
require it. The pavn inflicted is not the chief evil; 
but the injustice, and the immorality. It is brute 
force in the man appealing to brute feelings in the 
boy. It is twice cursed; it has a bad effect on the 
child, and a worse effect on the teacher.. It is not 
necessary, for the worst schools have often been 
taken, and changed into the best schools, by teach- 
ers who refused to use the rod. It is the refuge of 
indolence and imbecility. It is the easiest way of 
governing a school, and so is resorted to by those 
who, if this were forbidden, would soon have to 
find a better way, and acquire a moral imfluence. 
Prohibit it by law, and a wholly different spirit will 
take possession of these little communities. The 
teachers will all learn to govern, as so many already 
govern, by reason, by moral power, by the natural 
ascendency of knowledge over ignorance, by cre- 
ating a public opinion in the school favorable to 
- good discipline. This system has already been 


abandoned, and prohibited by law, in the most 


Ad DUTIES OF MASSACHUSETTS. 


enlightened parts.of Hurope.* It must be pro- 
hibited by law here. No class of men willmgly 
relinquish power. ‘The school-teachers are men, 
and will cling to the right to use the rod, whether 
they actually use it or not. I have been deeply. 
pained, I confess, to see the tone in which some 
have recently argued for the right of whipping. 
They speak of beating children, in a tone of levity, 
in a hard and cruel spirit, which has excited my 
orief. It shows how much some of them have 
been demoralized. by the practice, and how unfit 


they are to be trusted with this irresponsible power. 


The progress of Reform, Gentlemen of the Legis- 


lature, is like gomg up a lofty mountain. We 


* A friend in Paris, who was for several years a valuable teacher in 
one of our chief public schools in Boston, writes, that attending a lecture 
in the Imperial Lyceum, from Professor Méliot, on the English language, 
the Professor, in translating a passage from Bulwer’s Caxtons on the 
anti-birchen ideas of Dr. Herman, explained that it was still the custom 
in English schools to whip the children, which information was received 
with astonishment by his French auditors. After the lecture, he informed 
eur Boston teacher, that “corporal punishment had not been used in 
France in either public or private schools since the Revolution of 1789 ; 
and that if a teacher ever forgets himself so far as to strike a pupil, he is 
obliged to resign his situation.” It appears, therefore, that French boys 
and girls can be governed without the rod. Cannot ours be kept in 


order as easily ? 


DUTIES OF MASSACHUSETTS. 45 


surmount one steep after another, and as each new 
ascent opens before us, we imagine it is to be the 
‘last. But when we have conquered it, another 
rises, higher and+more difficult, and the summit 
seems ever to recede as we climb. So, one reform 
accomplished, another begins. No generation may 
repose on the labors of the preceding one; its own ' 
work is waiting for it. Let us do the work of 
to-day, while it is called to-day, that so much may 
be spared our children, and that we may be so 
much nearer the end. For we shall reach the sum- 
mit of the mountain at.least, and from that lofty 
height, survey as Moses from Pisgah, a fairer sight 
than met his prophetic eye. For here, in this 
western world, by the labors of our ancestors, our 
own, and those of our children, is to be realized at 
Jast their fair dream of a Christian Commonwealth. 
When we shall have absorbed and assimilated 
many races, when we shall have learned how to 
treat the poor, the wicked and the unfortunate, 
when our churches shall become one, in Christian . 
faith and Christian works, and so be able to stand 
shoulder to shoulder in lifting man out of his 
degradation and sin, then the old prophetic hopes 
may be at last fulfilled on these shores, the sword 


‘be beaten into a ploughshare, tears be wiped from 


‘46 DUTIES OF MASSACHUSETTS. 


off all faces, judgment dwell in the wilderness, 
they that erred in spirit come to understanding, 
the work of righteousness be peace, death be 
swallowed up in victory, and the earth be full of 
the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover 
the sea. But for this end, we must forget the 
things behind, and reach out to those before. We 
must be ready to take up owr cross, and do our 
work, as our fathers did theirs. 

‘We must: not. think to say to ourselves, self- | 
contented, “ We have the Pilgrims to our fathers,” 
for God is able to raise up out of the sands of 
Florida, or the soil of Illinois, children unto the 
Pilgrims. “To-day,” says the proverb, “is the 


scholar of yesterday.” 


* 


(“New occasions teach new duties ; Time makes ancient good uncouth, 
They must upward still, and onward, who would keep abreast of Truth ; 
Lo, before us gleam her camp-fires! we ourselves must Pilgrims be, 
Launch our Mayflower, and steer boldly through the desperate winter sea, : 


Nor attempt the Future’s portal, with the Past’s blood-rusted key.” 


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